VN-Index gains 64 points, red still beats green on 3 days
VN-Index closed the week of Aug 24-28 at 1,832.12, up 3.62%, but decliners outnumbered advancers on three of five sessions on HoSE. The rally was concentrated in a narrow group of banks, while foreign investors rotated out of state-controlled banks and into private joint-stock names.
Hormuz Shifts Script: From Blockade to Toll Fees
Iran and Oman just struck a revenue-sharing deal over the Strait of Hormuz, and Brent crude posted its steepest weekly drop the same day. Freight and insurance costs Vietnamese firms actually pay haven't followed.
Gold Up 14% in August: The Fed Never Cut Rates
The popular story says gold jumped nearly 14% in August because the Fed is about to ease. The real driver was fading fear of a Fed rate hike, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole speech on August 28 just flipped that variable back.
Rice Prices Rise 4 Months Straight, PH Tariff Falls Along
World rice futures have climbed for four straight months on El Nino expectations, but the Philippines' new import tariff mechanism actually falls as prices rise, the opposite of the common narrative. Three measurable signals will decide which branch plays out.
Bao Viet Earns VND4.93 Trillion in Deposit Interest
In H1 2026, Bao Viet's bank deposit interest income was 2.6 times its consolidated after-tax profit. It reflects how most Vietnamese non-life insurers are making money this year.
5-Day Holiday, Margin Interest Still Runs Full Term
Vietnam's stock exchange shuts for 5 days over National Day, but margin interest accrues on calendar days regardless. Shares bought on the afternoon of Aug 28 can't be sold until the afternoon of Sept 4.
Coffee Falls Hard, HGI Still Sells a 2028 Coffee Story
World coffee prices just lost nearly 9% in three sessions, right as Hoang Anh Gia Lai opened subscriptions for 18.8 million HGI shares built largely on a coffee growth story. But HGI's first commercial coffee harvest isn't until 2027, so today's coffee price barely touches the company's near-term earnings.
Bach Hoa Xanh Beats Its 2026 Target, IPO Still Years Off
Bach Hoa Xanh finished its 1,000-store target four months early, and H1 2026 profit already topped all of 2025. But the real obstacle to a separate listing is accumulated losses, not store count.
Gates Fund Trims Berkshire, Still Its Top Holding
The Q2 13F filing shows Bill Gates' trust cut $818.9 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock, yet Berkshire remains the fund's single largest position. A lesson for Vietnamese investors reading foreign net-flow data: a portfolio disclosure only tells you what changed, never why.
TCB Rallies 8.9%, BNP Paribas Denies Buyout Talk
Over two sessions on August 26-27, TCB shares climbed nearly 9% on an M&A rumor first reported by Reuters. More than four hours after the market closed on August 27, BNP Paribas came out to deny any plan to buy a stake.
Overnight Rate at 2%, Long-Term Deposits Still Hit 7.8%
Banks are lending each other overnight money at just 2% a year, yet Sacombank just raised long-term savings rates to as high as 7.8%. That is not a contradiction, it is what an upward-sloping rate curve looks like when a banking system's funding is structurally short-term.
CKA's 120% Dividend Comes From a Quarry, Not the Factory
CTCP Cơ khí An Giang (CKA) is about to pay a 120% cash dividend, its highest since listing. Most of the record profit behind it came from a joint-venture quarry, not the company's own machine shop.